BrianMDTX

Welcome, Jerry. The amount of info available here is priceless. I just got back into fishing after a long hiatus (be 60 in Sept). I’ve learned a lot in a few months.

5” Senko green pumpkin and watermelon.

^^^ this

I love looking at old ads like that. I used to subscribe to Outdoor Life in the 70s and that looks familiar. Like the ads for new Volkswagen Beetles in Nat Geo for $1,999.00 lol.

I have tons of turtles. I know I’ve had them hit a Senko a few times but haven’t hooked one thankfully. Live bait? You’re gonna catch a turtle guaranteed. I bet there’s over a hundred of turtles in this pond.

I still have two spinning reels you cannot close manually. A Mitchell 300 and a Shakespeare 2052.

Trust me when I say I think it’s the right thing to do. I’m just observing that when I last fished seriously in the 80s, I never saw anyone manually close the bail, or heard of it, for that matter. And pretty much every spinning reel I owned at that time could not be closed manually. At least not easily.

I keep coming back to look at that bass. That is truly one pretty bass.

When did that become the standard? When I fished a lot (up through the mid-80s), I never saw or heard of anyone closing the bail manually. Everyone casted their lure and cranked the handle to close the bail. In fact, I have some old reels (40-50 years old) that you really can’t close the bail manually. I believe it makes sense to eliminate line twist, but when did it become commonplace to do so?

I thought I’d loathe it here. But it’s surprised me. I swear, I guess being between the Atlantic, the Bay and the Appalachians, it just sits on Maryland like a steam room. I thought being so close to the Gulf it’d be worse. It’s really not. I do miss the chill in the air in fall. I DON’T miss scraping ice and shoveling snow lol.

Of my newer rods, I’d say Daiwa Aird-X and Fenwick HMX. I have no top-end rods, so I can’t comment on them. Most likely never will. At this stage of life I can’t see spending $200-$500 on a rod.

So-o-o...I moved to the Houston area from Maryland last year. Everyone told me I’d hate the heat and humidity. This is my second summer. The heat and humidity here, IMHO, is not what it is back in Maryland. Here, there’s always at least some breeze. Back home, when it’s 90° plus and 95% humidity, it lays on you like a steaming sponge. It starts earlier and ends later here. But I can handle it better than I could back in the Mid-Atlantic area.

I think it’s time has come. Yeah, everyone wants to see fish at the weigh-in. It's exciting. But it’s bad for the bass. It’s 2020. We can do better.

I had heat exhaustion once while in the Army. Working on a CH-47 at Ft. Carson in the July heat. Was walking across the ramp to the maintenance tent and basically passed out. Heat exhaustion is no joke. Heat stroke is deadly.

The pond is really heating up. Not the action, the water temperature. Got out at the crack of dawn but not a lot of bites. Did catch this one on a weightless TR Zoom trick worm early. It was a really light bite and I thought it spit it out, but then the line starting running. I set the hook and when I got the grippers on it, I saw the hook was down deep. As close to swallowing it as you can get. Took me several minutes to get the hook out cleanly and a few more to ensure it swam off. But off it went, so it appears that’s one bass to live and catch another day. Switched to a weightless TR Senko, than a wacky. Not even a nibble on a wacky. Went back to the TR. I flipped a cast that sailed over some submerged branches. I was on the phone with a buddy back in MD so I left it there while we caught up. After 15 minutes I told him I needed to reel the line in and avoid a snag. As soon as I turned the crank, I felt a hit. I caught this dink without trying lol!

Whatta bass! Great pic, too!

I’m using 12 lb Yo Zuri Hybrid. Great line and zero issues on my baitcasters. But 12 lb Big Game is not a bad choice.

I spooled 12 lb YZH on my Daiwa Millionaire 3H. Bought it in the mid-70’s. Reel works fine. Line works fine.

The ponds I’m fishing in Texas (Houston area) have a lot of algae on the bottom, but they’re not super weedy. I find a weightless Texas rig (Senko, Zoom trick worm, etc,) do well with a better chance of avoiding the algae than a TR with a bullet weight. The 5” weightless Senkos in particular cast very well from my baitcaster. I love those things!

Just imagine when this COVID-19 nightmare is over, all the deals there will be on eBAY, LetGo and other sites lol.

That’s a pretty bass right there!

I tried it. Worst line I’ve ever used. Lost three nice bass due to line breakage at the knot (no other line ever did that to me before). Horrible performance.

My motto is “If you can’t catch a bass on a Senko wacky rig, you can’t catch a bass”. Its my go-to when nothing else works.

That is real shallow. I pretty much fish in ponds, but not that shallow. About 99% of my catches have been on weightless Senkos wacky style or Texas rigs. Mostly wacky. At 2’-3’, there’s not much play room there.

I’m running 8# YZH on spinning reels and 12# on baitcasters. Good stuff. I do use KVD line conditioner because I’d rather be safe than sorry lol. But I don’t drown it. Just 2-3 spritzes at the most. Can’t compare it to the ultra soft as I never used it. I have no complaints. But, after spooling, I did attach a ball bearing swivel to a hook on my fence, tied the line off the opposite end and walked back until I had 50-60 yards off the spool. I held it under tension for 2-3 minutes and reeled it back on the spool while under tension. That eliminates almost 100% of any twist.